Excessive Thomas the Tank engine?

Question

My son is a Thomas the Tank engine fanatic. The amount of Thomas trains, tracks, train table, garb, accessories seems out of control in my home. I am an organized person by nature, but cannot seem to find the best system to organize al the Thomas stuff! There are so many little trains, coal cars, etc. Does anyone have any tips or a system that's working well? I don't want to simply put it all away in boxes, because typically, its all layed out as tracks.

Can anyone else relate to this?

Answer 1

Can't relate on that level, but I do own model electric trains, so I have plenty of stuff to store myself. So, lets look at your "problem" and determine a solution from that.

First of all, is this the wooden track, or the electrified track?
Does the track get set up the same way all the time, or is it random? Is the track the part that's hard to store for you? If so, have you, or will you, or will your child, consider having the train track mounted in a more or less "permanent" configuration for ease of setup? They can be mounted to a piece of plywood, and you can store it in a closet, under a couch or bed, etc. until needed. Unfortunately, this doesn't allow for creativity and different train track layout configurations. But it will help get it up and in place quickly. It can also be mounted or hung behind a door for storage if mounted permanently.
As far as the rolling stock storage, in the model train hobby, there are boxes with long compartments for storing cars and engines with foam between the rows. They're not exactly cheap, at $40 per box ( about 30 inches by 18 inches in size ), but it stores them without damage.
Another solution is that Wal-mart has some plastic drawer storage pieces, that look like silverware holders, only bigger. Also found in the Office section. These can be stacked, and there are some with varied compartment sizes,and some with fairly big sections. These might do what you want, and easy to store and search thru.
Depending on the size of the thomas stuff, there's even Diecast car storage that may work, with compartments. But they may be too small. Worth checking out ( found at Wal-mart as well ).
Good luck!

- The Gremlin Guy , USA -
www.pwmrc.org ( HO model train website )

Answer 2

try little organizers they have little drores one with the tracks and one with the tanks and trains and one for every thing else you can also buy him a toy box

Answer 3

I got huge rubbermaid tubs and stored it all in there (mine was Brio, but it's the same thing)